Sunday, January 22, 2006

Sick At Heart

...about how the PED (see "Lost In the Ground--Part 2") is just one of several devices that could help keep miners in touch and even track where they are so rescuers might narrow their search)...

...about seals that could do better in resisting explosions....

...about self-contained self-rescuers, and how it took 10 years after they were mandated to get them into the mines, and the shelf-life and maintenance issues with them that came up in the 1990's, and the market-based issues (few companies are interested in making them, given the limited profits)....

...about why it usually takes so long to develop new mine safety techology (some devices have been 'just around the corner' for years)....

A lot of this may be relevant to the appropriations hearing tomorrow.

But this morning's news (the two missing miners didn't make it)has left me sick at heart. I've just filed my routine stories and at this moment have nothing left with which to do more.

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About Me

From 1978 until 2004 I worked as a career civil servant in the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration, where my areas of reponsibility included media relations, the Freedom of Information Act, and other aspects of the agency's public information program.